Justice Denied for 30 Years: Six Reasons Guatemala Must Bring Rios Montt to Justice!
By Larry Ladutke
November 20, 2012 at 10:08 AM

As our families come together for Thanksgiving, please remember of the countlessGuatemalans who have never learned the truth about what happened to their loved ones.

November 2012 marks the 30th anniversary of General Efrain Rios Montt launching the bloodiest period of Guatemala’s civil war after seizing power in a coup. The victims and their families are still waiting for justice. Thankfully, some of them are finally getting their day in court as Rios Montt stands accused in the Dos Erres Massacre of 1982.

The Guatemalan government must bring Rios Montt to justice for not only Dos Erres, but all of the other massive human rights violations committed during his rule because:

■Government forces massacred or forcibly disappeared tens of thousands of civilians while Rios Montt was in power. Soldiers tortured many of these victims—often sexually—before killing them.

■The Guatemalan Commission on Historical Clarification (CEH) found that government forces committed acts of genocide against groups of Mayan people during Rios Montt’s rule.